Hadran: Advancing Talmud Study for Women

The Gemara continues the debate over whether shechita takes effect continuously from the beginning of the act until the end (yeshna l’shechita mitchila ve’ad sof), or if it only takes effect at the very final moment (eina l’shechita ela basof). Two further difficulties are raised against the latter opinion and are resolved.

There is a debate about whether the shechita needs to be done in a single, continuous cut (shechita mefura’at) or can be done in two or three different spots along the neck. The Gemara raises two difficulties against those who require shechita mefura’at. These challenges are resolved.

Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav brings a ruling about chalada, a disqualification of shechita when the knife is hidden under the simanim. The Gemara tries to assess what he is adding which wasn’t already stated in the Mishna in Chullin 32a.

The second part of Rav’s statement was that if the knife is under the hide, the shechita is valid. However, the beit midrash of Rav (Bei Rav) stated that it was unknown whether he actually permitted it under the hide. This statement by the scholars of his beit midrash led to several related questions that remain unresolved (teiku), such as hiding the knife under a cloth, under tangled wool, or concealing it during only a minority of the cut.

A Mishna rules that slaughtering two heads at once or two people holding a single knife and slaughtering are both valid. However, completely severing the head in one instantaneous downward blow is invalid due to pressing (drisa). The Mishna qualifies this: if the person was actually drawing the knife back and forth, but it came off after just moving the knife in one direction, if the knife was long enough, the shechita is valid. If they slaughtered with a back-and-forth motion, even if the blade is very small, the meat is kosher.

Two sources are brought to support the need for moving the blade back and forth when slaughtering.

The Gemara asks whether the requirement to slaughter birds is a Torah law or a rabbinic law. Rabbi Yitzchak bar Pinchas rules that it is only a rabbinic law. The Gemara raises three difficulties against his position but resolves them. The final difficulty is resolved by pointing out that this matter is subject to a Tannaitic debate, and the Gemara brings both positions.

Although only one siman needs to be slaughtered in a bird, the Gemara asks if it can be any siman or specifically the gullet. Rav Nachman and Rav Ada bar Ahava disagree on this point, and difficulties are raised against both positions. Ultimately, the Gemara concludes that cutting either siman is valid.

Rabbi Yehuda requires that the veins in the neck (veridin) must also be cut during slaughter. Rav Chisda explains that this rule applies specifically to birds, and its purpose is to drain out the extra blood so people will not come to eat it, but it is not an essential part of the shechita obligation. The Gemara raises three difficulties against this explanation, but they are all resolved.

If exactly half of a siman was slaughtered, there is a debate between Rav and Rav Kahana – do we say that since the majority is not unslaughtered, the shechita is valid, or do we say that since the majority has not been slaughtered, the shechita is invalid? The Gemara begins by raising difficulties against Rav’s position that half of a siman is considered as if the majority is slaughtered and the bird is permitted.

The Mishna states that slaughtering (shechita) is performed by cutting the two simanim (the windpipe and gullet) or the majority of each of the two simanim for an animal, and one siman or the majority of one siman for a bird.

The Gemara asks for the source in the Torah for slaughtering an animal at the neck, meaning by cutting the simanim. The Gemara brings five different answers to this question.

Within the discussion of the fifth answer, the Gemara brings the verse in Vayikra 11:46, which compares animals to birds. Other explanations of this verse are brought, including one derivation that birds only require the slaughtering of one siman, while fish can be eaten without shechita at all. Another source is brought to prove this distinction based on the differing ways animals, birds, and fish were originally created.

Rabbi Yitzchak ben Pinchas held that by Torah law, one is not required to perform shechita on birds at all. His source is derived from the verse requiring the covering of the blood (kisuy hadam) for birds and undomesticated animals (Vayikra 17:13)